Kobe Bryant isn’t the only NBA Finals participant who nearly played for a different team this season. Celtics’ forward Kevin Garnett, whose dark, smooth skull was the inspiration for “Predator,” was nearly traded to the Phoenix Suns last summer. Ya know, before Danny Ainge reminded Kevin McHale about that 1984 nightclub incident in Atlanta, when McHale yelled to a roomful of strippers, “Who wants to sex Frankenstein?” After that, it was only a matter of time before The Big Ticket was traded to Boston. That said, what if Kevin Garnett had been traded to Phoenix, ostensibly for a package surrounding Shawn Marion?

If Garnett had been traded to Phoenix…

• He would not be playing for the Celtics in the NBA Finals.
• Danny Ainge would not have been named NBA Executive of the Year.
• Al Jefferson would be mentioned in a lot more trade discussions, but now that he lives and works in Minnesota, he’s no longer a hot, up-and-coming young player, merely another poor soul who walked into the wild, never to return.
• Bob Ryan would not be taking Bill Simmons to task for poo-pooing the so-called rivalry between the Celtics and Lakers in the 60s, when Boston owned L.A. like the Yankees used to own the Red Sox.
• Phoenix would have lost in the first round to the Lakers and Kobe Bryant.
• Mike D’Antoni would be coach of the New York Knicks next season.
• The Knicks would still be irrelevant.

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